Trados Studio
The industry-standard CAT tool. Native handling of SDLXLIFF, IDML, FrameMaker MIF, and 50+ filters.
By Mike Bastin · Founder and CEOLast updated May 19, 2026
Web and Localization
A File Is Not Text. It Is Structure With Text Inside
The most expensive translation mistake is treating every source as plain text. A Microsoft Word DOCX contains paragraph styles, section breaks, footnotes, embedded objects, and revision metadata.
An Adobe InDesign IDML carries master pages, anchored frames, character-style overrides, and language-tagged paragraphs that drive hyphenation. An XLIFF 2.1 file carries source segments, translator notes, locked variables, and inline placeholders that, if broken, will crash the build pipeline of the application that consumes it.
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Format-preserving translation is the discipline of working inside that structure rather than around it. The same approach underpins our technical translation work.
A professional CAT tool (Trados Studio, memoQ, Phrase TMS, Smartcat) parses the source format with a dedicated filter, exposes only the translatable strings to the translator, locks every tag and placeholder, and reassembles a target file that opens cleanly in the originating application. The difference between this and a copy-paste workflow is the difference between a file you ship and a file you rebuild.
This format-first workflow runs across our language services, from a single file to a full multilingual release.
The same discipline applies across every format we handle: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF on the office side; Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker, Illustrator, and AutoCAD on the print and engineering side; XLIFF, JSON, YAML, ARB, .strings, .resx, and PO on the localization-engineering side for website translation; and SRT, VTT, TTML, and SBV on the audiovisual side. Each one has a translation-aware filter, a quality-control protocol, and a delivery format that is ready for the application that will read it. Where the files are presented at a launch or a training day, our conference interpreting services cover the live side, and documents that an authority asks to see certified go through our certified translation services.
CAT Tools and Industry Standards
The software and standards behind every delivery we make. Translation memory, terminology, and interchange formats are portable: every TMX and TBX we generate belongs to your account.
memoQ
Server-based translation environment used in regulated sectors (medical, legal, finance) with full XLIFF 2.1 support.
Phrase TMS
Cloud TMS (formerly Memsource) with API and connector ecosystem for Drupal, WordPress, Contentful, Figma, GitHub.
Smartcat
Cloud platform with built-in translator marketplace. Strong on JSON, YAML, ARB and modern web/app strings files.
Wordfast
Lightweight TMX-first toolkit popular for freelance and DTP-heavy projects with Word and InDesign sources.
OmegaT
Open-source CAT tool. Supported as an interchange path when client tooling demands plain XLIFF or TMX outputs.
Open Standards and Interchange Formats
XLIFF 2.1 (OASIS)
The OASIS XML interchange format. The lingua franca for handing translatable strings between CMS, CAT tools, and TMS.
TMX 1.4b (LISA)
Translation Memory eXchange: lets translation memories move between Trados, memoQ, Phrase, and Wordfast without loss.
TBX (ISO 30042)
TermBase eXchange. The ISO 30042 standard for sharing client glossaries and terminology databases across vendors.
ITS 2.0 (W3C)
W3C Internationalization Tag Set. Marks translatability, locale rules, and confidentiality directly inside HTML and XML.
Unicode UTF-8 / UTF-16
Character encoding non-negotiable for CJK, RTL Arabic and Hebrew, Cyrillic, Greek, and combined-script source files.
Second-Linguist Review
A second linguist revises every translation before delivery, whatever the file format.
Where File Formats Meet Local Conventions
The same DOCX or IDML behaves differently in different countries: paper size, date and number formats, official languages per territory, and locale-specific spelling all change the deliverable. We localize for the country and the format together.
United Kingdom
en-GBBritish English spelling (organization, colour, recognise) and DD/MM/YYYY dates. A4 paper.
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GBP currency. Layout templates routinely expect £ in pre-decimal placement and Royal Mail address blocks. Default Word and InDesign installations in the UK ship with A4 page setup; US source files at Letter need a reflow, not just a translation.
Belgium
nl-BE / fr-BE / de-BEOfficially trilingual: Dutch (Flemish), French (Walloon), and German. Same DOCX or IDML source, three target locales. nl-BE differs from nl-NL in vocabulary and tone (e.g. Flemish prefers the formal U where Netherlands Dutch uses je). fr-BE and fr-FR differ on numerals (septante and nonante in Belgium) and EU-specific legal terminology.
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Source files are typically delivered as one master IDML translated into three locales.
Netherlands
nl-NLNetherlands Dutch (the prestige register), DD-MM-YYYY dates, comma decimal separator (1.234,56), Euro after the amount in informal use. A4 paper.
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Strong preference for sentence-case headings in marketing copy. Many NL clients ship XLIFF exports from headless CMS (Contentful, Storyblok) for product strings.
Germany
de-DEGerman text is usually longer than the English source. Compound nouns (Datenschutz-Grundverordnung) need DTP reflow in IDML and FrameMaker MIF.
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Comma decimal separator, period thousand separator, DD.MM.YYYY dates. GDPR is referenced under its German statutory name in legal and privacy copy for de-DE output. Capitalization of all nouns is non-negotiable. ß or ss depending on Swiss vs German market.
Australia
en-AUBritish-derived spelling with local divergences (program not programme; -ise endings). A4 paper.
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AUD currency. Local English copy often substituted for en-GB on assumption, then fails on idiom and product name (e.g. capsicum not bell pepper). en-AU should be quoted and translated as a distinct locale, not as a side-effect of British English delivery.
United States
en-USUS English spelling, MM/DD/YYYY dates, US Letter paper (8.5 x 11 inches) which breaks pagination of A4-designed InDesign files. USD currency.
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ZIP codes in address blocks. Word and InDesign installs default to Letter page setup. Customary units (inches, pounds, Fahrenheit) often need conversion in metric source content for marketing localization.
South Africa
en-ZA / af-ZA / zu-ZA + 8 moreEleven official languages including English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho, and Setswana. en-ZA follows British conventions but with local vocabulary (robot for traffic light). A4 paper.
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ZAR currency. Government and NGO content is frequently produced in 4 to 6 of the official languages from one DOCX source, with isiZulu and isiXhosa requiring careful Unicode handling for click consonants and tone marks.
Morocco
ar-MA / fr-MA / berThree working languages: Modern Standard Arabic (ar-MA), French (fr-MA, the language of business and higher education), and Tamazight (ber, official since 2011, written in Tifinagh script). Source documents commonly need to ship in two or three locales.
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Arabic requires RTL handling in IDML (World-Ready Composer or Adobe InDesign ME). Tifinagh requires Unicode-compliant fonts (e.g. Noto Sans Tifinagh) and rarely ships in default InDesign installations.
What Our Clients Say
“It is a real pleasure to work with the BeTranslated team who has been very professional, flexible and responsive during all projects.”
Valentine B.Google review (INTL), 3 years ago “They offer great and reasonable prices for sworn translations. Thank you for your help in translating my documents for my legal process.”
DravenGoogle review (SL), 6 months ago “We contacted Betranslated services in July 2024. My daughter had time sensitive documents that required certified translation from Spanish to English.”
Lyne G.Google review (SL), a year ago
File-Format Translation FAQ
Why does a Word document need special handling for translation?
A Microsoft Word DOCX file is not text. It is text plus invisible structure: paragraph styles, section breaks, header and footer content, embedded tables, footnotes, comments, tracked changes, and revision history. A translator who delivers plain text leaves you to rebuild the document by hand. We translate inside the DOCX format using Trados Studio or memoQ filters as part of our document translation workflow, so the file you receive opens in Word with structure intact and ready to ship.
Can you translate scanned PDFs and image-based PDFs?
Yes. Image-based PDFs are run through OCR (ABBYY FineReader for production work) and rebuilt as either editable Word or InDesign source. Vector PDFs exported from InDesign or Illustrator are typically converted back to the source format (IDML or AI) so layout, fonts, and image links survive translation. The deliverable is a press-ready PDF that matches the original visual hierarchy.
What is XLIFF and why does the industry use it?
XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format, OASIS standard, current version 2.1) is the most widely supported interchange format for translatable strings. It carries source text, target text, segment status, translator notes, and locked variables in one structured XML file. Nearly every modern CAT tool and TMS reads XLIFF natively, which means a project starting in Phrase TMS can usually finish in Trados Studio without manual reimport. For developers, XLIFF is the format of choice for mobile apps, web localization, and CMS exports.
Will my Adobe InDesign layout still work after translation?
Yes. We translate from the IDML interchange format (Adobe InDesign Markup Language), which carries paragraph and character styles, master pages, anchored objects, and text frame links. The translated IDML opens in InDesign with layout preserved. Where target languages need expansion (German is usually longer than English) or contraction (Chinese Simplified is usually shorter than English) our DTP team reflows in InDesign so the final PDF matches the source design.
Do you support right-to-left and CJK source files?
Yes. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu are handled with the original RTL paragraph direction preserved (in IDML this requires the World-Ready Composer or Adobe InDesign ME). Chinese, Japanese, and Korean files are translated with full Unicode handling (UTF-8 or UTF-16 depending on source), correct font fallback for CJK glyphs, and vertical typesetting where the source uses it. We deliver a file that opens cleanly in your target locale's native software.
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Which file formats support translation memory and glossary reuse?
Every format we support feeds a TMX-format translation memory and a TBX-format termbase. That means every DOCX, IDML, XLIFF, JSON, or SRT file you send us trains a memory specific to your account. Repeat content on the next project is reused automatically, reducing both turnaround time and cost. The TMX and TBX files belong to you and are portable to any other vendor.
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Need Your Files Translated?
Send us your file and language pair. We will quote as quickly as possible, with formatting and layout preserved throughout.
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